Painting faces exercise Zorn palette. Further characters from 'On the Buses'.

A further 3 portraits of cast members from the popular 1970's TV series 'On the Buses'. From left to right can be seen Michael Anthony Robbins as Arthur Rudge, Anna Karen as Olive Rudge and Doris Breamer Hare MBE, as Ethel "Mum" Butler.

Each painting is done on cardboard sized at 12”x 9 “ and painted in oils using the limited 'Zorn' colour palette, consisting of  ivory black, Cadmium red, titanium white and yellow ochre. 

The three main characters artwork can be seen on this link. 

Painting faces exercise Zorn palette 'On the Buses'

These three portraits feature some of the regular cast from the hit comedy TV series 'On the Buses' that ran from 1969 to 1973. From left to right the actors are Reg Varney as Stan Butler , Bob Grant as Jack Harper and Stephen Lewis as Inspector Cyril 'Blakey' Blake.

Painted in oils onto cardboard from a supermarket, each one sized at 12" x 9.5". The colour palette is the limited 'Zorn' one, designed by the Victorian artist, Anders Zorn. The colours are yellow ochre, ivory black, Cadmium red  and titanium white.

Summer 2021.

Bus queue in the rain

BUS QUEUE IN THE RAIN

This is an older painting of mine, done in Photoshop during 2006. It is quite cartoony, with the characters having black spots for the eyes rather than fully painted ones. There is quite a lot of dark humour in this image, particually with the cat right in front of the bus wheel, about to be run over. Also in the fact that the woman is in difficulties and her plastic shopping bag has split, with some of the contents spilling out. A surreal touch is the monkey on the top deck. I did wonder about giving the bus a 'disapproving' face, but the headlights seem to work as eyes anyway!
I was thinking of 'Reg Varney', from TV's 'On the Buses' when drawing the bus driver.

from the website...

This was digitally painted in 2008 in photoshop at 10"x8" size. The scene depicts a rainy, depressing day in the UK with various accidents awaiting to happen, like the shopping bag about to break or the cat about to be run over. The bus driver is sitting smoking a cigarette, and could not care less. The monkey adds a bit of surrealism. The rain and the reflections were fun to explore and the red double decker bus is not a london bus but a made up one. It could be argued that the headlights on the bus are eyes! The crinkled destination blind and number in the wrong place are something that I am reminded of when I think of these old types of buses.